Sony apologizes for massive battery blunder

Sony Corp. executives apologized Tuesday for inconvenience caused by a massive global recall in notebook batteries that is affecting almost every major notebook manufacturer, including Apple Computer.

According to the Associated Press, the Japanese electronics and entertainment company said improvements in production, design and inspection have been made to prevent a recurrence of any notebook overheating problems.

"We would like to take this opportunity to apologize for the worries," Sony Corporate Executive Officer Yutaka Nakagawa reportedly said, bowing slightly with two other executives at a news conference at a Tokyo hotel.

"The executives were seated while they bowed and did not bow deeply standing as most Japanese executives generally do in public apologies for troubles at their companies," said the AP, "underlining how Sony has been reluctant to admit fault in the troubles with its laptop batteries."

Sony said last week said a total of 9.6 million lithium-ion batteries, manufactured between August 2003 through February this year, are being recalled worldwide amid reports of some computers overheating and bursting into flames.

In August, Apple announced that it was recalling about 1.8 million notebook batteries used in its previous generation iBook and PowerBook G4 notebooks due to the matter.